What do beastmen use as mounts?

Most of the bestman types (hobgoblins excepted) have no affinity for horses. This has me wondering what kind of animals they use in place of horses. The list of affinities is complete enough to make draw some obvious conclusions:

  • goblins -> warg... er, dire wolves
  • orcs -> giant boars
  • kobolds -> giant weasels
  • gnolls -> hyaenadons

Bugbears are mysteriousy absent from the affinity list, but "bears" might be a fairly obvious choice.

Lizardmen seem like a problem, though. The giant lizard types aren't realy large enough for riding. Does any of the source material for the Thrassians mention what ancient lizardmen used for mounts? I'm hoping for an alternative to dinosaurs, since I want to keep them rare and hidden away in lost-world corners of the map.

According to Auran military historians, the Thrassian army used a mix of heavy and light foot and flying raiders drawn from the ranks of the Thrassian tyrant caste. Neither horses, wolves, or boars had yet been bred large enough for use as mounts circa 1650 BE. It is believed that by 1250 BE the Thrassians had developed armored chariots drawn by giant lizards. Ancient Zaharan sources report that the Thrassians deployed wingless dragons and dragon turtles as artillery platforms during the Zaharan uprising. Such claims are generally considered to be self-serving myths by most reputable scholars. The Auran Empire is unquestionably the world's greatest empire, and it has never domesticated the draconic race, so the suggestion that the primitive lizardmen could have done so is, of course, absurd.

 

In my campaign lizard men field hippopotamus cavalry.  (I used the stats of a rhino with a swim speed rather than a charge attack).  

Chariots! I always forget about those.

Tempted to use those lizards that can run across water on their hind legs, for rapid amphibious assaults. I suppose the chariot itself would still need some kind of amphibious design too.

Shades of Disney’s Fantasia…

In an old video game lizard men used dragon turtles as mounts.  My lizard men are infantry only, however.